Obi, however, added that the matter was still being investigated by UK authorities.
Peter Obi, the candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election, has said the issue he recently had with alleged identity theft in the United Kingdom started in Nigeria.
Obi, however, added that the matter was still being investigated by UK authorities.
He disclosed this on Sunday while speaking as a guest on a Parallel Facts Media Twitter Space programme.
“I have been to the UK since then and they too are investigating because when I arrived, I asked them and they said they were looking into it,” Obi said.
“That’s all I can say for now. I am also extremely careful. I’m managing it and I am hoping nothing goes wrong. But it all started from here; that’s all I can tell you. It’s something that started from Nigeria.”
In April, Obi was reportedly delayed and questioned by some immigration officials in London over a case of identity theft.
Obi was said to have been detained for hours after his British Airways plane landed at Heathrow Airport.
According to one of his former aides, Prof Chinyere Okunna, Obi narrated the ordeal to her in private and expressed pain about his ordeal, which was meant to hound and chase him out of Nigeria.
Okunna said, “Today, 11/04/2023, I was shocked beyond words to hear from His Excellency Mr Peter what he went through when his British Airways plane landed at Heathrow Airport London in the early morning of Friday 07/04/2023.
“He was talking to me at the Official Opening of the Specialist Hospital of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) Sisters, Nkpor. He had arrived at the event after flying in from London, his presence heralded by the usual 'ear-splitting' ovation that accompanies him everywhere nowadays. As the "Most Outstanding Pillar of the Foundation/Hospital", the Reverend Sisters were full of expectations that he would attend; so were we (Members of the Governing Board of the IHM Sisters Healthcare System), although there was also anxiety about whether he would be able to make it, being outside Nigeria.
“I suppose he told me all this confidentially. My very sincere apologies, Your Excellency, for ‘breaking’ this confidentiality, but History beckons and I CANNOT KEEP QUIET.
“He arrived at Heathrow Airport and joined the usual queue to pass through Immigration, and that was when his ordeal began.
“He was stopped and questioned for a long time and subsequently handed a detention note and told to wait for further interrogation and investigation. This was terribly unusual for a man who had lived honourably in the UK for a long time.
“In the face of this harassment, some well-meaning Nigerians, knowing who he is, raised their voices in protest, demanding to know why he was being treated that way.”
Okunna revealed that in the face of seeming protest by some Nigerians, the immigration officials revealed that someone was impersonating Obi in the country.
“The shocking revelation by the Immigration Officer was that his (Obi’s) identity ‘was duplicated’. This revelation has definitely set off alarm bells.
“For people who are knowledgeable about such matters, this is a very dangerous development because the implication is that someone is impersonating Peter Obi.
“And that someone could implicate Obi in all manner of dubious and even criminal activities, and rope him into any number of offences; he could get Obi framed for one criminal act or another. The frightening scenario of what can happen is unimaginable.”
However, Femi Fani-Kayode, the former Director, New Media sub-committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign council, had said Obi could not be trusted unless he explained what led to his detention by British immigration officers at Heathrow Airport.
He said Obi must clarify if he violated British laws, either knowingly or unknowingly.
Fani Kayode stated, “Until Peter Obi tells us what happened to him at Heathrow Airport and why he was accosted and detained by British immigration officials over Easter, he cannot be trusted or taken seriously.
“Peter Obi’s claim that he never ‘knowingly’ broke the law speaks volumes and suggests that he broke it ‘unknowingly.’”